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MELANCHOLY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy
Synonyms:
black bile; melancholy
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("melancholy" is a kind of...):
bodily fluid; body fluid; humor; humour; liquid body substance (the liquid parts of the body)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A feeling of thoughtful sadness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("melancholy" is a kind of...):
sadness; unhappiness (emotions experienced when not in a state of well-being)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "melancholy"):
gloom; gloominess; somberness; sombreness (a feeling of melancholy apprehension)
heavyheartedness (a feeling of dispirited melancholy)
brooding; pensiveness (persistent morbid meditation on a problem)
Weltschmerz; world-weariness (sadness on thinking about the evils of the world)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("melancholy" is a kind of...):
depression (a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Grave or even gloomy in character
Example:
a somber mood
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
cheerless; depressing; uncheerful (causing sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Characterized by or causing or expressing sadness
Example:
we acquainted him with the melancholy truth
Synonyms:
melancholic; melancholy
Classified under:
Similar:
sad (experiencing or showing sorrow or unhappiness)
Context examples:
A cold and melancholy walk of a couple of miles brought us to a high wooden gate, which opened into a gloomy avenue of chestnuts.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"Something very melancholy must be the matter, I am sure," said she.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Thus Elizabeth endeavoured to divert her thoughts and mine from all reflection upon melancholy subjects.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
The melancholy cleared away from the massive face of the big seaman, and his deep laughter filled the room.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Poor Charlotte! it was melancholy to leave her to such society!
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
The poor horse was very melancholy, and wandered up and down in the wood, seeking some little shelter from the cold wind and rain.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
A melancholy feeling of sadness and despair.
(Depression, NCI Thesaurus)
“Come, brother Stephen, he hath some tincture of letters,” said the melancholy man more hopefully.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The shock, however, being less real than the relief, offered it no injury; and she began to talk with easy gaiety of the delightful melancholy which such a grove inspired.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Perhaps it was this—perhaps it was the look of the island, with its grey, melancholy woods, and wild stone spires, and the surf that we could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach—at least, although the sun shone bright and hot, and the shore birds were fishing and crying all around us, and you would have thought anyone would have been glad to get to land after being so long at sea, my heart sank, as the saying is, into my boots; and from the first look onward, I hated the very thought of Treasure Island.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
